Winner of both the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Nobel Prize for Literature, John Steinbeck is in the first rank of American authors. One of his earliest works, The Red Pony is a moving coming-of-age novel. Hardened by years on a California ranch, young Jody Tiflin is ready to assume more adult responsibilities. His father gives him a pony—under strict instructions to manage the animal's care. But Jody soon learns that the first steps toward maturity can lead directly down the cruel path of fate.